New School Building Occupation Ends in Raid, Pepper Spray

This occupation of the New School by student protesters is shaping up to be distinctly more serious than the last one. According to Times reporters on the scene, riot police “stormed” the building the students were occupying on Fifth Avenue and 14th Street. They arrested nineteen protesters and liberally used pepper spray as protesters attempted toflee:

A videotape shot by a freelancer, Brandon Jordan, showed about half a dozen police officers standing near the door on 14th Street when it was pushed open from inside. The footage then shows officers shaking cans of pepper spray as they hold the door back, spraying inside the corridor, and then slamming the door shut. The footage showed an officer, a few moments later, lunging toward Mr. Jordan’s camera, before swerving toward a young man standing on the street shouting. In the footage, the officer pushed the man’s face and knocked him to the ground before arresting him.

The police raided at the request of the university, and took away the arrested students in police vans, handcuffed with white plasticties.